1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates generally to outdoor cooking apparatuses, and more particularly to barbecues.
2. Description of the Related Art.
There are a number different types of barbecues in use today, and they generally have the same essential features. They have a bowl for holding fuel, such as charcoal, wood, or a gas burner. They also have a cooking grate surface, such as a grill, that is set in or on the bowl over the fuel. Often they will have a lid that has a groove that fits on the lip of the bowl to substantially enclose the cooking volume. One such barbecue is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,927, by Stephen et al., which is not admitted to be prior art by its inclusion in this background section. That patent discloses a barbecue kettle, wherein the bowl and the lid are substantially hemispherical.
In use, a cook seeks to prepare several food items at the same time by placing similarly-sized items on the barbecue grill for cooking. Ideally, the food items are finished cooking at the same time if they have been prepared to be the same size. However, it is well-known that this is rarely the case. The lid must be removed repeatedly and the food items moved around the grill to even out the cooking times. Every time the lid is removed, heat escapes, and cooking times increase. This can make barbecue cooking inefficient. Eating overcooked food can be very undesirable. Eating undercooked food can be very unhealthy.
There may be several problems in the standard barbecue to explain why cooking times are different. Coals, or other heating items, may be distributed unevenly under the cooking grate. There may also be restricted or blocked air flow within the barbecue. These problems in combination with the cook constantly removing the grill's top to turn items tends to make cooking times very uneven. These problems demand a solution.
In some barbecues, like that disclosed in Stephen et al., a lid is used to help even out cooking by convective heating. Although convective heating may be more uniform in these types of barbecues, they do not address the problem of uneven radiative heating from the fuel source below. The amount of radiative heating directly from the coals may far exceed the amount of convective heating available, especially if the cook must repeatedly remove the lid to move the food items around.
In other barbecues, a rotisserie apparatus is used to slowly rotate the food items over, or along side, the heat source. Such a barbecue is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,517, by Huff et al., which is not admitted to be prior art by its inclusion in this background section. These barbecues employ a motorized or hand-operated apparatus that holds the food item and rotates vertically along the horizontal rotisserie axis. This type of barbecue is adequate to uniformly cook large food that hold together well, items like whole chicken and turkey. However, they are unsuitable to cook food items that must lie on a horizontal grill so that they do not fall apart. Examples of such food items are hamburgers, shish kabobs, stuffed peppers, pizzas, steak, fish, chicken parts, hot dogs, sausages, and grilled vegetables, like onions and corn. The rotisserie also cannot brown items like hamburger and hot dog rolls.
What is needed, therefore, is a barbecue apparatus that is capable of heating food evenly on a horizontal grill, even though the fuel underneath is not burning evenly.